362 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



The pasturage should be supplemented by a 

 liberal allowance as much as the bull will eat 

 up cleanly in most cases, unless actual experi- 

 ence shows that he inclines to become too fat 

 on such a ration of cut oats and chopped hay, 

 arid a good feed of wheat bran and corn, shelled 

 and crushed if possible. This is necessary to 

 keep up the lusty state of body which is so 

 essential to sexual vigor. Of course this is very 

 different from the course recommended in gen- 

 eral with cows, and it deserves special notice. 

 A great many breeders allow their stock bull 

 to run out with their cows, and especially with 

 their dry cows. The result of this is that they 

 get only such food as the cows get. Now, while 

 there is no need of anything more than pastur- 

 age, or pasturage and hay and corn-fodder for 

 dry cows, a bull cannot do heavy service on 

 such a ration. Every breeder who has pursued 

 such a course has surely noticed that, while 

 the cows keep in excellent condition, the bull 

 is almost always in low flesh, and not infre- 

 quently excessively thin. Where the bull is 

 kept in the pasture with all the cows the milk- 

 ing cows will be housed and fed, and the bull 

 often left out and without feed in the winter. 

 The tax on the bull at the same time is, in its 

 way, quite as great as, even greater than, that 

 upon the system of a cow in milk and in calf. 

 He must be fed to meet this tax; fed, and fed 

 liberally. 



